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Small Bombs Rattle Northern Spain Cities
By The New York Times
August 12, 2004
Madrid, Spain (AP) -- Small bombs rattled two northern cities Thursday, one hidden in a bush at a Santander park causing no harm and a second at a beach in Gijon slightly injuring an elderly man, the Interior Ministry said.
The blasts came a day after thousands of sunbathers were evacuated from five beaches in eastern Spain for several hours following a telephoned bomb warning. No explosives were found, and a 23-year-old man thought to have made the call as a prank was arrested Thursday in Madrid.
Bombings along Spain's coast at the height of the tourist season are a hallmark of the Basque separatist group ETA, which has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its campaign for an independent state.
The Interior Ministry said an anonymous caller warned of the Santander bombing in calls to a newspaper in the city and to a Basque newspaper. It was not immediately known if the caller claimed the blast on behalf of ETA, the announcement said.
The ministry said the small explosion was similar in magnitude to a blast in the nearby town of San Vicente de la Barquera on Saturday. That was one of two bombings claimed by ETA over the weekend, neither of which caused injuries.
No other details on Thursday's bombing in Gijon were immediately available.
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